Pancake Sundaes and Chocolate Chip Zoats

FOOOOOOOD GLORIOUS FOOOOOOOOD. (Can you tell where my head's been?)

Can't even blame it on lowered macros since coach hasn't touched them in over a month. Guess it's just my body attempting to adjust...or could be all the holiday food I've been seeing.

Speaking of which, I'll be bringing my own food to Turkey Day and Christmas. Last time I prepped during the holidays I was on a strict bodybuilding diet, i.e. chicken and broccoli. But this yearrrrrrr I'm counting macros!!! So I'll be eating turkey breast, roasted squash, asparagus, carrots and dip, pop tarts, ice cream and cookie dough dip.
It's all about balance people. And by bringing a mix of foods, I'll eliminate my urge to pick on the food everyone else brings since there's no way I'd be able to calculate unknown macros.

But onto the stuff you came here to see...my latest creations.

Behold...the chocolate-covered strawberry ice cream pancake sundae. *faints*

YEAHHHHHHHHH OMG IT'S SO AMAZING IT CANT BE REAL BUT IT IS!!! 

Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Ice Cream Pancake Sundae

40g Kodiak Cakes Power Cakes Mix

2 egg whites

20g Cor-Performance Molten Chocolate Whey

30mL almond milk

102g chopped strawberries

65g Arctic Zero strawberry ice cream

Walden Farms No Calorie Chocolate and Strawberry Syrups

Mix Kodiak mix, egg whites, whey and almond milk together, and cook in a pan like you would pancakes.

Layer with chopped strawberries, and top with ice cream and syrups. Who cares how messy it gets. One bite into this baby and you'll forget trying to make it pretty and will turn to shoveling it down your pie hole.

It's been like dessert cravings all week...so here's another! 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Zoats

30g oats

120g shredded zucchini

40g vanilla protein powder

50mL almond milk

15g pb

vanilla and butter extracts to taste

10g chocolate chips

Mix everything but the chocolate chips, and microwave until mixed and hot enough. Then top with chips and enjoy! Simple, delish and addicting.

With all these dessert meals you'd think I'd be a piggy by now...but nope! I'm still sticking to my macros and the physique is coming along nicely. I posted this on Instagram yesterday and it's pretty cool to see.

Yeah, I'm leaning out and I'm proud of that, but what really excites me is the fact that right before I took this second photo, I had finally deadlifted and hit a new PR...while dieting. Normally it wouldn't be so exciting but I had been unable to deadlift for a month due to a pretty bad pec muscle strain. So finally it's feeling better yayyyyy. 

Let the gains begin!!!

Oh wait...I'm dieting. DOH!

It's amazing how much more fun this prep has been now that I'm more concerned with what my strength is instead of just the ascetics of the sport. If you're new to bodybuilding or haven't had much mental success with it thus far, just remember...

You're only on stage for a few minutes. But you still need to live the rest of your life.  

Christmas on my Arm Deserves Strawberry Chocolate Fluff

It's Saturday, which means I traveled to another LA Fitness to get swole with my INOV8 teammate, Emily. Today we had a third swole sista join us, Cheyenne. This girl is a BEAST. She's recovering from knee surgery and crutched around with us as we killed delts and arms. No excuses right?!?

Midway through the workout she mentioned I had a little Christmas tree of veins coming out to play on my delt...so naturally...#selfie. (Yes, I hashtag in my posts and I don't care.)

Say hello to "Emily". Yep, I name my veins.

So since I've been on a protein fluff kick, I created today's flava of chocolate-covered strawberry goodness. Now, keep in mind, I'm dieting...so the macros are going to be super low on this. Feel free to adjust and add real strawberries and other things if you wish. I don't have much to work with lol. 

Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Protein Fluff

• 5 ice cubes
• 2g xanthan gum
• 45mL unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 47g Cor-Performance Molten Chocolate Whey
• couple glugs each of Walden Farms chocolate and strawberry syrups

Blend together till it blows up in size and looks a lil somethin' like dis:

IT'S SO FLUFFAYYYYY!!!!!

Put into a giant bowl and dump in 33g of rice crispies (or whatever cereal you're craving) and top with sprinkles. 

Why? 'Cause. That's why. 

I topped with a another drizzle of chocolate and then had this loveliness:

Mmmmmm the colors man!!

Macros for my creation: 35.8p/34.8c/2.5f 

Mmmmkay time to feast! 

The Quad Pops and Protein Fluffs

Tomorrow I'll be 15 weeks out from the 2015 Arnold Amateur Figure and I was feeling not-so-ready today. (I know I know...you're probably like, "Amie you're nuts, you have 15 friggin weeks!!") To which I say 15 weeks is not a lot in the bodybuilding world. It flies by. But sometimes you just get into one of those moods and it causes you to doubt yourself.

My chest/back workout today just furthered my funk.  Since I naturally get leaner up top before the bottom can catch up, my initial strength didn't drop, which is awesome, but by my 4th set I had to lower the weight...on almost every move. Anyone else have that issue? Competitor or not, I'd love some feedback.

So I slumped into the aerobics room to practice posing...and had to take a selfie.

Um hey quad WUSSUP?!? For those who have been following me on Instagram, you know my quads have been my trouble area and my main improvement focus. So to see them begin to pop at 15 weeks out is just amazing to me.

Suddenly I mentally bitch-slapped myself in the face and remembered that I just have to keep grinding.  Some days aren't going to feel awesome, but as long as I keep pushing and working my hardest, changes will happen- inside and out. It's a great thing for all of us to keep in mind, no matter who you are and what your goals are. As Dory said in Finding Nemo, "Just keep swimming."







So to celebrate my quad finally coming out to say hewwo, I skipped (ok drove) home to make myself my other newest food obsession- protein fluff.

The pic just doesn't do that giant bowl justice. Basically, protein fluff is when you combine protein powder, milk, (I always use unsweetened almond milk) and a TEENY bit of xanthan gum to thicken it up. Then you blend for a few min till it basically quadruples in size and you have this giant mound of fluffy goodness.

NOTE: I stress TEENY bit of xanthan gum because you only need a gram or two to thicken nicely, and if you use too much, your stomach will HATE you for the remainder of the day. (Think pain, gas, bloating and then a date with the toilet...yuck.) So do yourself a favor and use your food scale...because my first attempt wasn't so pretty. 

To make this post-workout feast even more awesome, I added a bit of Walden Farms calorie-free chocolate syrup, rice crispies cereal and of course...#spranks lol. 

Thinking of trying a fruit flavor next...maybe chocolate strawberry? Throw me some flavor ideas people!!!!

Hope everyone has an awesome weekend!

Baked Zoats Discovery (how have I never made this before?!?)

So since I'm about 15 weeks away from the 2015 Arnold Amateur, I'm already in a caloric deficit.  This means high-volume food finds are going to be my best friends from now till I hit that stage.
Luckily, the lovely folks in my Facebook groups had a slew of recommendations for me. One of which being zoats.

What are zoats you ask? Well basically it's a mixture of oats and shredded zucchini cooked together as you would oatmeal. The zucchini creates huge volume and cuts down on the carbs. And yes- it's delicious. Case in point: my baked zoats creation from this morning's breakfast.

It was a fluffy, soft and yummy hot bowl of power food, topped with my current obsession, Biscoff cookie butter. (I've gone through 3 jars in less than 3 weeks. Intervention maybe?)

Dieting or not, check out my recipe. And the macros are on point people. (But of course, adjust depending on your needs.)

Amie's Cinnamon Baked Zoats

• 150g shredded zucchini
• 20g quick oats
• 4 egg whites
• 18g canned pumpkin (because I wanted to use it up)
• 25g Cellucor Cor-Performance Cinnamon Bun Whey (or any protein of your choice)
• 30mL unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• a few glugs of Walden Farms caramel syrup
• 1 packet stevia
• 2 dashes cinnamon
• 2 dashes low-sodium baking powder

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, then blend everything together. Pour into any small round (or square- get crazy!) dish that's been sprayed with nonstick spray, and bake for 30 min. 

I topped it with 25g Biscoff cookie butter, but you could use nutella, nut butter, coconut butter or just omit completely. (Which I'll probably have to do eventually once coach drops my macros low enough.)

Enjoy and let me know how yours turns out! I welcome your changes to make your own creations. The more tweaks there are, the more options that are available!